Cheyenne Council Committee To Consider Trash Fee Increase Monday

The Cheyenne City Council Finance Committee is slated to take up a proposed five percent increase in trash collection fees at it's Monday meeting.

Cheyenne Public Works Director Vicki Nemecek says the department had originally planned to ask for an 8 percent fee increase. A consultant hired by the city a few years ago had recommended five consecutive years of eight percent increases each year to keep the department operating effectively and financially solvent. Three years of 8 percent increases have been implemented in recent years.

But she says a lifetime permit granted for the Happy Jack Landfill in late April allows for the vertical expansion of part of the landfill where trash is currently being collected. She says that will allow putting off a planned expansion project for a couple of years, allowing the size of the proposed increase to be reduced from the planned eight percent to five percent.

But at least one member of the finance committee, councilman Richard Johnson, says he thinks it might be better to bite the bullet with a larger fee increase now to head off a possible series of rate increases in future years that could spin out of control.

The committee will meet at 11 a.m. Monday in room 104 of the Municipal Building at 2101 O'Neil in Cheyenne.